Ambivalence:FirstNationalBastard: MaudlinMutantMollusk: FirstNationalBastard: See what happens when people start watching British dramas?

I blame Monty Python

Does British comedy transfer to the states as well as the drama does?

Sure, there's stuff like Python that's pretty much universal, but do other British comedies make it across as well? I mean, even The Office had to be Americanized.

/then dragged out for about 6 years too long, as is the American way.

It depends. Geeks like british comedy. Just look at IT Crowd, Doctor Who (it's funny), spacers.

Why haven't we gotten a remake of Doctor Who yet? Could connect to a whole new audience with Shia LaBeouf as the Doctor, Rihanna as a spunky, sorta-goth chick as his new companion and the wise-cracking TARDIS embodied by a holographic Dane Cook. Bonus cameo by Jack Black as every single Dalek.

Camus' Ghost:"Now Rory knows that claret is imminent , but doesn't want to miss any of his game. So, calm as a coma, he picks up the fire extinguisher, walks right past the jam rolls who are ready for action, and favorited!s it outside the front door. He then goes back and orders an Aristotle of the most ping pong tiddly in the nuclear sub, and switches back to his footer. "That's farking it!" says the geezer. "That's farking what?" says Rory. He then gobs out a mouthful of booze, covering fatty. He then flicks a flaming match into his bird's nest, and the bastard's lit up like a leaking gas pipe. Unfazed, Rory turns back to his game. His team's won too. Four-nil."

"Now Rory knows that claret is imminent , but doesn't want to miss any of his game. So, calm as a coma, he picks up the fire extinguisher, walks right past the jam rolls who are ready for action, and plonks it outside the front door. He then goes back and orders an Aristotle of the most ping pong tiddly in the nuclear sub, and switches back to his footer. "That's farking it!" says the geezer. "That's farking what?" says Rory. He then gobs out a mouthful of booze, covering fatty. He then flicks a flaming match into his bird's nest, and the bastard's lit up like a leaking gas pipe. Unfazed, Rory turns back to his game. His team's won too. Four-nil."

xcv:Ambivalence: FirstNationalBastard: MaudlinMutantMollusk: FirstNationalBastard: See what happens when people start watching British dramas?

I blame Monty Python

Does British comedy transfer to the states as well as the drama does?

Sure, there's stuff like Python that's pretty much universal, but do other British comedies make it across as well? I mean, even The Office had to be Americanized.

/then dragged out for about 6 years too long, as is the American way.

It depends. Geeks like british comedy. Just look at IT Crowd, Doctor Who (it's funny), spacers.

Why haven't we gotten a remake of Doctor Who yet? Could connect to a whole new audience with Shia LaBeouf as the Doctor, Rihanna as a spunky, sorta-goth chick as his new companion and the wise-cracking TARDIS embodied by a holographic Dane Cook. Bonus cameo by Jack Black as every single Dalek.

We need to remove this post IMMEDIATELY before Hollywood gets buzz and puts this into production. I will not let Shia LaBeouf rape the Doctor the way he raped Indiana Jones.

Dead-Guy:I think that with reference to advertising using "u" (colours, etc).. there's the factor that it's cheaper to make one advertisement that covers as much ground as possible, minimizing the adaptation to local areas makes sense when you look at it that way... The U is also present in Canada, which means you get an extra country by using it.

The U, in England and Canada, is perceived as correct usage (obviously), so if it's not there it gives a negative connotation to the statement used.

In America, two things happen.. One, folks suspect you're being a little snobbish by using it, or worldly, depending upon the level of hipster. Two, it sticks in your head a little as being unusual, which of course, is desirable in an advertisement. Not having the "U" means nothing "extra" to the Americans. Though if the President spelled color with a U, we might kinda start wondering about who's running the show.

Also, translation services around the world often have a tendency to cater to British English, rather than American English, as perhaps a perception that they are interchangeable, though the British English is perceived as "most correct" by outsiders for the same reason Spanish in Spain is considered the "most correct" version of Spanish to learn.

In a previous job I was told to use the American spelling for 'Localisation' (z in place of the s) as our American clients thought we, a localisation company, couldn't spell 'localization'.

Rufus Lee King:I'm sure this is already known, but a person was, in the days of merrie olde England, not supposed to use the adjective "bloody", as it invoked the blood of Christ, which was considered blasphemy.

xcv:Why haven't we gotten a remake of Doctor Who yet? Could connect to a whole new audience with Shia LaBeouf as the Doctor, Rihanna as a spunky, sorta-goth chick as his new companion and the wise-cracking TARDIS embodied by a holographic Dane Cook. Bonus cameo by Jack Black as every single Dalek.

hubiestubert:Oddly enough, Americans have preserved in some isolated communities, a more "true" British dialect than the current wash of BBC English and urban dialects.

Even as English has changed here, influenced by waves of immigration, changed in the Caribbean, changed in Australia, English was doing the same thing in England as well. Modern dialects are NOT the same as they were, and English is a language that is wonderfully adaptive, in its ability to absorb linguistic elements from languages it's near. The ability to absorb loan words, to still maintain structures, and in some ways, the "backwoods" dialects of America, have preserved many older elements of English.

Mass communication has done some interesting things with transmission of linguistic elements. Cultures aren't preserving changes for as long, and there is an odd bit of homogenization between cultures, including between sub-cultures across nations. It's a neat time to be a linguist. Even with the spread of film and even radio, there was a rise for a sort of "standard" dialect. BBC Standard, American Standard, and others, as a sort of "official" dialect, and entirely artificial, as opposed to the regionals, and the rise of folks aping the dialects that they heard on radio and in films, it sort of slowed linguistic drift, but now that we have a wider range of dialects spread quickly with mass communication, and less than official channels where just about anyone can upload videos, music and more, we get to see a lot more diversity, and oddly enough, folks aping one another.

Bally Jerry, pranged his kite right in the how's-your-father; hairy blighter, dicky-birded, feathered back on his sammy, took a waspy, flipped over on his Betty Harpers and caught his can in the Bertie.

alienated:Aye, it does. Check out- Shameless- not, not the US version, the real one. Ideal . Spaced . Red Dwarf. The IT crowd has been mentioned. Only Fools and Horses . Porridge might, but its early / mid 70's .Vicar of Dibley. Absolutely Fabulous .I could go on, but you get the point, i hope.Cheers

I think it depends on whether the show is "topical" or not.

2012 (an absurdist type comedy about the build up to the Olympics) may not have done as well as it was very topical, but very funny.

Rev and Miranda would probably do better.

Mrs Brown's Boys, if my parents are anything to judge by, would do brilliantly.